Tony Stewart and the Office Depot Foundation Team up to Donate 5,000 Backpacks to Children in Need

INDIANAPOLIS – Office Depot® and the Office Depot Foundation announced today that NASCAR star Tony Stewart, an Indiana native and driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™, will join the Foundation on Thursday, July 23, to donate 5,000 backpacks to non-profit organizations and schools in the Indianapolis area.

The donations will be made during a special “Back-to-School Backpack Celebration” beginning at 2 p.m. local time at the Office Depot store located at 4200 South East Street (at I-465) in Indianapolis. In addition to Stewart, special guests scheduled to attend include Kim Preston, Director of Education & Workforce Initiatives, representing City of Indianapolis/Marion County Mayor Gregory Ballard; Katherine Blane, Office Manager for U.S. Senator Richard Lugar; Perry Township Trustee Gary S. Coons; Donna Marino, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; Joni Thompson, Executive Director, Tony Stewart Foundation; Pam Boas, Tony Stewart Foundation Board Member; and Jay Hein, President and CEO of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research.

This year, the Office Depot Foundation celebrates an extraordinary milestone as it donates its 2-millionth backpack since the inception of the National Backpack Program in 2001.

“The Foundation believes strongly that we are helping children to build self-confidence, boost self-esteem and achieve greater success in the classroom – all as a result of being well-prepared for school,” states Foundation President Mary Wong, who will participate in the Indianapolis event. “We are extremely pleased to be able to donate our 2-millionth backpack at a time when so many children and families are dealing with the impact of the economic downturn.”

Stewart, who grew up in Columbus, Ind., and still resides there, will help host the backpack donation event as he prepares for the July 26 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ Allstate 400 at the Brickyard race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sunday, July 26, 1 p.m. EDT, ESPN). He is a two-time winner of the prestigious 400-mile race.

“I’m thrilled to partner with Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation to donate 5,000 backpacks in my home state and help so many kids get ready to head back to school with the tools they need to succeed,” said Stewart, who has taken on the role of driver/team owner with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009. “Education is the foundation for success no matter what career you choose, and it’s humbling for me to be part of such a terrific program.”

The non-profit organizations and schools selected to participate in the July 23 backpack donation event include:

* Indianapolis Public Schools
* Metropolitan School District of Perry Township
* BackPack Attack
* Children’s Bureau, Inc.
* Covering Kids & Families
* Educational CHOICE Charitable Trust

In addition, representatives of three organizations that recently received backpacks from the Tony Stewart Foundation in collaboration with the Office Depot Foundation will attend:

* Camp Riley
* Camp John Warvel-Indiana Area American Diabetes Association
* Happy Hollow Camp

In total, the Tony Stewart Foundation donated 5,600 backpacks to the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. in Stewart’s hometown of Columbus, Ind., Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis and six children’s summer camps and youth programs in Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

To distribute its backpacks in 2009, the Foundation is hosting 25 “Back-to-School Backpack Celebrations” in cities across the U.S. and Canada – five of which feature Tony Stewart. Thousands of backpacks also are being donated by Office Depot stores in hundreds of local communities and in collaboration with Office Depot’s Business Solutions Division in select cities.

Thousands more backpacks will be distributed through the Office Depot Foundation’s partnerships with several national non-profit organizations – including the Tony Stewart Foundation, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, City Year, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Feed The Children, the Kids In Need Foundation, Nourish America and the National Foundation for Women Legislators, whose members will give backpacks to children in all 50 states. For the second consecutive year, backpack donations will be made to children of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.